Individuals often wear goggles to protect their eyes or to improve their vision when participating in a sport or a recreational activity, such as skiing, motorcycle racing or snowmobiling. During use, a strap holds the goggles in place on the wearer's head. The strap length is typically adjusted and held securely in place by use of a buckle.
FIG. 1 shows a buckle configuration typically used to secure and adjust the length of a strap commonly used with sport goggles. The buckle 2 is unitary, and includes two slots 14, 16 that are bordered by sides 10, 12 and a center bar 18. The slots 14, 16 are sized to receive a strap (not shown).
To secure and adjust a pair of sport goggles, two buckles 2, 3 and two straps 22, 24 are typically used, as shown in FIG. 2. The first and second buckles 2, 3 are substantially identical, and are generally of the type shown in FIG. 1. In operation, a pair of sport goggles 20 have a first strap 22 and a second strap 24 attached to lateral sides 26, 28, respectively, of the goggles 20. The end of the first strap 22 is threaded through a slot 34 on the buckle 2, looped back, and attached to the first strap at a point 36. The second strap 24 is looped over the center bar of the second buckle 3 and one end is attached to the strap 24 at a point 40. Another end 42 of the second strap 24 is threaded upwardly through a slot 46 on the first buckle, and brought back towards the second buckle 3. The second strap 24 is further threaded upwardly through a slot 48 on the second buckle, over the center bar (not shown), downwardly through the second slot 16, then attached to the lateral side 34 of the sport goggles 20. This configuration allows the user to lengthen or shorten the overall length of the assembly by sliding the second buckle 3 to and fro along the length of the second strap 24.
The buckle and strap assembly shown in FIG. 2 works adequately to facilitate lengthening and shortening of the assembly, but it is not without problems. As shown in FIG. 2, loops 50, 52 are formed in the first and second straps 22, 24. The loops 50, 52 are typically formed by sewing a strap end back onto the strap itself. For example, FIG. 2 shows the ends of the first and second straps 22, 24 attached at points 36, 40 to form the loops 50, 52 around the center bars of the buckles 2, 3.
The stitching is usually performed by a factory worker, who must sew each individual strap. The sewing step is a bottleneck in the manufacturing process since the sewing is not performed by an automated process. Sport goggles having sewn straps can not be shipped to the retailer in pieces, and must be fully assembled at the factory prior to shipment. Thus, performing this step by hand decreases the manufacturer's throughput of the sport-goggles assembly, while increasing the attendant manufacturing costs.
The end user also encounters problems with sport-goggles assemblies having sewn straps. For example, buckles cannot be replaced by the user without specialized equipment, and are typically returned to the factory for repair. Because the strap is sewn, the buckle cannot be replaced without removing the stitches, removing the buckle, and re-sewing the strap to secure a new buckle. An industrial sewing machine is recommended to provide stitching sufficient to provide a secure loop to anchor the strap to the buckle. As such, sport-goggles users can not replace a damaged buckle without significant difficulty, expense, and delay.
As previously described, the sport-goggles assembly as shown in FIG. 2 may not be disassembled and reassembled without specialized equipment and substantial effort. In pursuit of sports such as skiing, users may choose to wear a helmet. The circumference of a user's helmet is necessarily larger than the user's head. Using the sport-goggles assembly shown in FIG. 2, it is difficult to quickly and easily provide additional strap length if a user should desire to use a particular sport-goggles assembly in association with a helmet.
A need therefore exists for an improved buckle for use with a strap that can be removed, replaced, and allow the overall length of the strap to be increased without the use of specialized equipment.